Boukari Ouoba, vice-president of the Association of Burkinabe Journalists (ABJ), is one of three journalists who disappeared after their arrest on March 24, 2025, and appear to have been conscripted into the military, according to a video shared on social media the following week.
On March 24, intelligence officers took Ouoba, who also works with the privately owned newspaper Le Reporter, and ABJ president Guézouma Sanogo to an unknown location after Sanogo criticized the “kidnapping” of journalists, “unprecedented” attacks on press freedom, and authorities’ “total control” over state-owned “propaganda” outlets at the media group’s March 21 meeting in the capital Ouagadougou.
Intelligence agents then arrested Luc Pagbelguem at BF1 TV’s offices over his report on the meeting.
On March 25, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Mobility said the ABJ had been “dissolved or non-existent” since 2019 for alleged non-compliance with the law, and anyone who sought to support or maintain it would face sanctions.
In a video, published by several Burkinabe Facebook accounts on April 2, 2025, the three journalists appeared in military uniform at an unknown location, with armed men, some wearing army uniform, standing behind them.
An AJB representative, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, confirmed the journalists’ identities to CPJ.
In the video, Pagbelguem said, “the real information on the ground” had “nothing to do with what we hear,” while Ouoba added, “No one can report on the security situation while being in Ouagadougou.”
It was unclear if the statements were made under duress.
CPJ’s calls in April 2025 to Burkinabé Prime Minister Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, government spokesperson Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouedraogo, and the Ministry of Defense to request comment were not answered.
Ouoba and Pagbelguem were released on July 17, 2025, and Sanogo was released on July 21.